


Hero Complex

by blak_cat



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 19:45:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4112725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blak_cat/pseuds/blak_cat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny's reunion with Laura would have gone a lot better if it hadn't dredged up a world of annoyance at getting thrown over for Carmilla yet again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hero Complex

**Author's Note:**

> My response to the complaints about Laura giving Carmilla all the credit in episode 3

You get the text in the middle of a stake-out at the border between your territory and the Zeta's. The plan is to amass enough ground (after taking it back from the Zeta's) to effectively get the Alchemy Club out of the south because God knows what ridiculous weird shit that weird shit was doing down there in the name of campus protection (aka, weird ass experiments).

**Laura Hollis (11:04pm)** : Meet at the old mansion by the south quad, bring Zeta's.

And your first thought is holy crap. Because this is the first time you've heard from Laura since she fled campus. Sure you caught some of her Twitter feed recently but the last text before that one was the one requesting stakes and backup to the Lustig.

**Danny Lawrence (11:06pm)** : Are you okay?

You know she's going to hate that. Not that you know why because of course caring is a crime when she'd rather have Carmilla's disaffected, bad girl sense of passivity (you know that's not true but blaming Carmilla is easy). But you need to make sure this isn't a war council meeting or a preparation for something ridiculous.

**Laura Hollis (11:10pm)** : Yes. Need to discuss campus issues. Will talk more tomorrow, we're going to bed.

_We're_ going to bed. That could mean anything of course. Could mean the house as a whole was going to bed (knowing Perry, a lights out policy was not out of the question). But somehow you know in your stomach she means her and Carmilla. Together. In the same bed. Which shouldn't be a shocker because you caught them both dropping "girlfriend" in a few Tweets but that didn't make the confirmation of it super enjoyable.

"Hey Brosefs," you call over the impending water balloon battle. "Ceasefire."

"You can't just say ceasefire and expect—"

"I got a message from Laura."

Kirsch drops his balloons in exchange for a bright smile as he hops over the barricade bordering no man's land and trotts over, incredulous as his fellow brothers look behind him. You walk out to meet him with Mel behind you quickly in a peeved tow.

"She wants us to meet at that creepy old mansion down in Alchemy territory," you say. "She said 'bring Zeta's' so I assume that means you too."

"Little nerd hottie's okay then?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, little what now?" Mel jumps in but you put up a hand.

"He doesn't mean anything by it, honestly, it's like his nickname for her," you say and ignore the raised eyebrow Mel gives because, yeah okay it could be a way better and less objectifying nickname but he means well so lectures can come later.

"So, until then we're calling a truce," you say sternly, looking back at the collection of popped collars behind the forts.

"Sounds good to me," Kirsch says and it's honestly getting really hard to continue hating him.

You break off with a hand shake and walk back to your respective sides, agreeing to meet in the morning. And Mel is huffing the entire way back, practically begging you to give her an inch to rant and you're not sure which is worse, letting her huff her way home or listening to whatever spiel she's got cooking inside her head. You're probably going to hear it no matter what.

"You can just get it out now," you say.

"Teaming up with Zeta's to impress Hollis is kind of low Lawrence," she says and you really weren't expecting that.

"I'm not trying to impress anyone," you say. "Laura's my friend and Kirsch's friend and if she's got a plan, which she usually does, we should hear her out. I mean she's like the only person who gave a crap last semester about missing girls."

"And now she's shacking up with the number 1 culprit, definitely someone to be taking orders from," she says.

"It's more complicated than that. Carmilla's…her whole business isn't simple," you say. "She's not going to hurt anyone though, I can most likely promise you that much."

"'Most likely.'"

Nothing else is exchanged between the two of you before you retreat into your own bedroom and force the images of Laura curled up into the side of the vampire out of your head because it wasn't your place to be jealous anymore and it wasn't fair to you.

The rest of the night is spent in relative calm. The air seemed to have exhausted itself on storms for the time being and you even got ripples of moon light through your curtains when a draft kicked them open. And in the morning the sky was clear as well as you dressed and prepared for whatever tension and paintball fight ensued from being crammed in the same room with Zeta's, talking strategy, and watching Mel eye the vampire.

You already pulled Carmilla's small, lifeless body out of that crater and carried it back, now you were defending her to your sisters. Perhaps there was something weirdly worth protecting in her, or maybe you were just telling yourself that to keep from finally decking her.

The walk is awkward and the house is foreboding and you volunteer to be the one to knock on the door because otherwise it will degrade into some deadly battle of rock, paper, scissors and, honestly, no one has the time.

"Oh, hello," Perry says briskly, opening the door. "Good, Laura was just taking a break from the SNN update."

"SNN?" you say. "You mean she's actually continuing the death wish broadcasts?"

"Yes, well I wouldn't put it like that to her," Perry said, stepping aside to let them in and closing the door after them.

As you walk through the foyer you notice two things: first, that Perry keeps talking about a surplus of baked goods she made if you're hungry, and two, that whoever owned this place was equal parts rich and creepy. The dizzying wallpaper was one thing but the walls themsevles were decorated with trophies ranging from deer to God knows what kinds of animals, in between paintings of Egyptian hieroglyphs and disturbing artwork.

Honestly, can't you get one normal building on campus?

In the living room Carmilla and Laura are sitting on a leather chaise lounge, the camera pointed into the open room but the recording light vacant. The pair seem to be in some sort of deep conversation because they're huddled close and frowning worry lines into each other's faces. It's better than walking in on them kissing, you suppose.

Perry clears her throat and they both look up. Laura smiles, Carmilla rolls her eyes and reaches behind her, pulling out a book and sip cup of less than ambiguous contents.

You pray that Mel keeps her mouth shut.

It doesn't last long though because before you know it everyone's going after everyone and there's a shrill whistle and Laura's throwing the names of the dead newspaper kids at you.

"Hey, we saved the campus—"

"No you didn't!"

Rookie move Straka. You can already see the flaming red in Laura's eyes and hopefully she takes all that pent up rage out on a pillow and not the asinine fraternity brother having his first go of Hollis Rage.

"Do you know who did? She did!"

You part to follow the direction of her pointed hand and forget that Carmilla had been reading in the back of the room the whole time. Carmilla looks up lazily, scans the room, and goes back to the book without a word or a pause in the steady guzzle from the cup. Yep, it's definitely the wanting to deck her thing. 

"Carm is the one who very nearly sacrificed her life—death—undeath? Whatever. Saving us all from ending up as fish food so the very least you can do is start pretending like you survived puberty, am I making myself clear?" she spews before taking a breath.

The amount of hurt you feel from that conversation doesn't become clear until later when you're all gathered around the dining room table of the house. Carmilla excused herself from pretending to enjoy human food, and naturally that meant Laura ran off with her to go make googley eyes or listen to her spew romantic poetry or whatever ridiculously gross stuff they got up to.

Dinner was mostly silent on your part. In fact the only one really talking was LaFontaine making obvious attempts to break tension or get someone to laugh. Perry, mothering as ever, seemed sensitive about the whole ordeal and didn't say much besides offering more food, in between pretending to listen to LaFontaine and ask questions.

And in this silence, you have time to feel hurt that Laura yelled at you like any other coed, completely forgetting you had once been—well, almost, something to her. And now the only person apparently worthy of hero worship was the vampire who got off her ass for two seconds and got to be the savior.

"You're super quiet, Danny," LaFontaine said.

"You'd be too if you weren't reminded how insignificant we all are next to the grace and redemptive angst that is Carmilla," you grumble. You hadn't really meant to say that in present company, or at all. But you had few people you could complain to when the majority of the Summer Society wanted to stake Carmilla about 5 times.

"Well, dinner reunions are always fun," Perry says before taking a sip of water.

"Yeah I'm not exactly happy about getting shoved aside for the bloodsucker either," Mel agrees. "Might as well have thought the vampire was the only person in that pit."

"I mean, I got a killer punch in there on that one vamp with glasses," Theo says through a full mouth.

"And those Alchemy Club glow puffs were tight," Kirsch adds.

"Yes, we all helped good for us," you say.

It was all about luck, like who got to make the last out in kickball or who just happened to slam the last kid in bombardment or who was in the right position to knock the ball into the net with seconds to spare in a soccer game. A workforce of struggle and all the glory to the person who got the last word in.

"I mean, in the grand scheme of it," LaFontaine says. "Carmilla did have the most to lose, and lost a lot of it."

"I would have gotten the sword if I knew about it," you say fast and it's childish but it's also true.

"No you wouldn't have," LaFontaine says evenly. "Carmilla was the only person who could do it and probably the last person who wanted to."

"So, what? She gets a metal for not being as big of an asshole as she could have been?" you say, putting your fork down.

"No," they say. "What I'm saying is it's easy for you to say you'd get the sword because it's true. Any of us would have. Easy choice. Carmilla's choices weren't so easy and she made them anyway."

"It doesn't mean she was the only one doing anything to help."

LaFontaine sighs and places their napkin on the table. You wonder if their attachment to Carmilla stems from some weird scientific research thing or if there is a true bond there. Well, there probably is. Something about shared identities as outsiders, or so LaFontaine put it one time last semester when they were drunk. The others in the room are focusing on their food, though Mel is muttering words of support to you from under her breath. Perry is up and taking as many dirty dishes as possible, rambling about needing to restock on cleaning supplies and wondering if the convenience store got hit with the fairy civil war yet or not.

Kirsch offers to help with dishes and follows Perry into the kitchen quickly.

"I'm not gonna lie, yes, Laura has rose tinted glasses when it comes to Carmilla," LaFontaine says. "But she's also the one who knows better than anyone all the awful crap Carmilla got up to, and still managed to find more good than asshole."

You tell yourself you're not pouting as you twirl the spaghetti on your fork.

"Besides, you all were in the middle of an ego trip last semester."

You slam what remains of your utensils down and stand up, walking out with no clear direction out of the room. Maybe all the way back to the Summer Society house because apparently everyone in this house was a Carmilla apologist. You make it into the foyer before you knock into something small and soft that squeaks.

"Oh, Danny. Sorry, I didn't see you—are you leaving?" Laura asks, running a hand through her mussed hair. She's out of the dress now and back into pajamas.

"Yep," you say curtly and move past her.

"Well—um, is everything okay? You seem kinda…on a mission," she says.

The first instinct is to say, yes everything's dandy, lie, and then sit seething for hours hoping she gets the hint and feels bad. Of course, you don't have enough self-control not take a jab where you see an opening.

"Just making my way back to the land of prepubescence," you say and you take pride in how guilty she suddenly looks. "Where everyone but Carmilla, apparently, resides, in your mind."

Oops, too far. Because now the guilt is gone and she's two seconds away from glaring.

"Look," she says, closing her eyes. "I'm sorry I yelled at you and grouped you in with all of them, though I will say you did do your fair share of arguing. You're a very good friend and I know you're not just some sorority sister playing capture the flag, I know you have really awesome, good intentions. But can we please leave Carmilla out of it?"

"Apparently we can't since she's the only one who did anything, remember?" you shoot back.

Laura exhales sharply through her nose and her jaw seems to set tightly if the bounce of muscles there is any indication. There's a bunching at her sides as her fists clench up and you're really hoping you didn't incite another incident of whistle blowing in your face.

"That's not what I meant," she says.

"So she's not your knight in shining armor then?"

"Oh my God, Danny that is not what this is about."

And she storms away, back into the living room and you follow because your irritation with her has got you on a tether. She drops angrily into the leather chaise and you both ignore how adorable it looks when she bounces back up. No, now is the time for anger.

"Enlighten me, then," you say. "Because it sure as hell sounded like we dicked off while Carmilla carried the world on her shoulders—which, I might add, was not a change of heart she had until like the last hour of that whole thing."

"I didn't say she did—"

"Yes you—"

"Will you let me talk?"

You were both yelling and whatever din might have been going on in the kitchen cut off immediately and once again you were about to get embarrassingly reamed out by Laura Hollis in front of others. At least Elvira wasn't here to snicker in the corner again.

"Danny, you guys aren't doing any good right now," she says carefully. "And you weren't doing any good last semester either with these ridiculous turf wars. And to have you guys go around claiming you saved the campus and claiming control the place isn't fair to anyone.

"We all put in effort, and yeah, you guys are doing more than me because I stupidly ran away but now I'm back and I'm not going to listen to power trips from you guys when there's someone sitting quietly in the back corner of the room, responsible for saving all your lives, and who hasn't said a word about it or asked for a thank you from anyone."

You frown and pay particular attention to a loose button in the stitching of the chaise lounge and try to pretend she didn't just have 50 good points.

"Carm's not the only hero," she continues. "Side note: don't tell her I said this because she gets cranky if you talk about heroics. But I meant when I said when I liked that you are righteous and loyal and caring and the world definitely needs you to run for president of like 8 countries. But, there's different ways to be righteous and courageous and all that stuff, it just so happens that that's what we needed last semester."

And you concede first in your head that she was right and you're being petty. You concede also that you need to have a cursory monitor at her hero worship of Carmilla because you meant what you said when you told Mel it was complicated and that could end up being dangerous for Laura's heart if all that black and white got tainted with the shade of grey that was Carmilla.

But you nod and give Laura a small smile.

"It just—it feels like I'm always tripping at the finish line when it comes to her," you say. Laura frowns.

"Making it out to be a competition kind of takes away my agency, don't you think?" she says. "This is going to sound awful but, there is _no_ competition when it comes to Carmilla."

And you can see a brief flicker of how in love she is and you can't help but smile, and even laugh a little bit as you give her a teasing push and she blushes, dropping her gaze and laughing a bit too. You liked having this back, having your friend back.

As much as you had liked Laura, you managed to stop yourself before falling in love with her and as lingering as your feelings still were, seeing how bubbly Carmilla made her after the days of agony she put herself through dreaming of the vampire's sacrifice and hating herself for not having the courage to tell her how she felt before Carmilla showed her just how strongly she felt, all made it worth a little bit of emotional strain on your part. And if you liked Carmilla better you might be happy for hr 300 years of loneliness coming to end.

"Carm won't say it to you," Laura said. "But I see it in her face when I mention you, she is super grateful to you. And I'm working on getting her stoic butt into 'thanking and apologizing' mode, so hopefully her vocal gratitude is forthcoming, but you're definitely in her good books."

"Just what I always wanted," you tease and you know for sure that everything is okay.

You both head back into the kitchen and Laura mentions something about Carmilla going out for a "run" about the campus (evidently as a panther) and everything cools down a little bit. You still think Theo is an idiot and Kirsch tries too hard and Mel is going to kill them both but maybe that's what family is all about at the end of the day.

Eventually, Carmilla does join you and the picture completes itself when she plops down into Laura's lap and you all ask 50 questions about what it's like to be a panther. And she groans and huffs but turns to clay when Laura runs her fingers through her hair and does as she's told. 

Useless vampire maybe wasn't as useless as she seemed. And that's the only compliment she's getting for the next month.

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully this piece speaks for itself my views on the Danny v Carmilla thing (that seems like it's only going to get worse this season). However feel free to discuss it with me on tumblr (allymelftsw.tumblr.com). That aside, thanks so much friends and as always let me know what you think.


End file.
